LATEST: The new SBAC testing offers updated assessments and new approaches to testing.
By Matt Kaye, Staff Writer
This year, students face a new form of testing that will dominate California from 2014 on.
By now, many are familiar with the term “Common Core” and the national wave of change that it promises for education. Under the Common Core, a series of smaller programs are implemented in various parts of the country. Each one attempts to align the standards addressed in the Common Core curriculum to the states in which they oversee.
The program that works directly on California is the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). This group offers testing specifically in English-Language Arts and Mathematics for the time being. The new assessments are now piloted in field tests throughout California and other states.
Field tests began this year with Poly students in the junior class testing this past April. All field tests were administered via the use of small laptop computers, or netbooks. Nationwide, SBAC conducted preliminary testing for over two million students thus far. The purpose of this initial process is to ensure that the test is fair for all students as well as serve as an accurate representation of student ability. Another important factor behind the field tests is to slowly bring teachers and school officials closer to a fully digital form of score reporting, a change that has been long anticipated.
One of the goals of SBAC is to eliminate the one-size-fits-all approach that state testing has always taken. “Smarter Balanced is committed to producing assessments that are accurate and fair for all students. The Consortium has developed usability, accessibility and accommodation features to ensure that students have a positive and productive assessment experience that generates fair and accurate estimates of each student’s achievement,” SBAC stated. This includes the elimination of solely multiple choice examinations.
The introductory process the SBAC is carrying out is just the start of what will become the new and significantly improved form of student assessments. Once the assessment procedures are fully implemented, students and educators alike will be able to better promote and understand students’ progress.